Everybody saying turnout was down --please STOP it (here's why)

you are comparing the votes counted at this point (not the total) with the total votes counted at the completion of the 2008 count.

there are probably 3 million votes to be counted in California alone, probably 2 million from Washington state (Washington's deadline for votes was to have them postmarked by election day) and votes from the rest of the country.

so some people are comparing apples and oranges.

worse, what's laughable is that some are saying Obama's total is 9 million down from 2008 another at the same time is saying he's 8 million down from 2008, because the numbers are changing hourly!

anyone who says that Obama is 8 million behind 2008's total is comparing a partial count with a full count. USELESS.

4. The Freepers are heavily into this.

It's already an article of faith over there that Obama got fewer votes than McCain did in 2008. All the Republicans had to do to win was to nominate a candidate who could match McCain's total -- or, more precisely, the total of the McCain - Palin ticket. The falloff in the Republican votes came because Sarah wasn't on the ticket and because many conservatives who held their nose and voted for McCain just wouldn't do so a second time. All this proves that the Republicans can win easily by running a strongly conservative candidate.

Even more promising is that some of them, disgusted by the parade of RINOs foisted on them by the GOP establishment, are giving more consideration to abandoning the Republican Party and going third party.

CreekDog, the details in your post are valuable, but my lurker account on FR will not be sharing this information. Let them go on thinking that tacking hard right is the sure route to victory.